What is the whole counsel of God?

'Wherefore I testify to you this day that I am pure from the blood of all. For I shrank not from announcing to you all the counsel of God' (vers: 26, 27). The apostle could thus solemnly attest his fidelity to the trust the Lord had confided to him. (Compare Ezek. 3:18-20). Twice at least (vers. 20, 27) he disclaims expressly that reserve which some bearing the Christian name have not been ashamed to avow as a merit learnt from Him Whose death rent the veil, and Who puts all true followers of His in the light of life, the light which makes everything manifest. Walking in darkness now that the True Light shines is a walk in the flesh without God. With such doctrine no wonder that 'the hungry sheep look up and are not fed.'

It is a mistake that 'all the counsel of God' means no more than the plan of God for saving men unfolded in the gospel. 'The gospel' is indeed the preaching of salvation in a dead and risen Saviour; 'the kingdom', whether morally or in its fully manifested form, has its own distinct force in God's reign, as we have seen; 'all the counsel of God' rises still higher and embraces His purpose in its utmost extent (e.g., Eph. 1:9-12).

Paul was an evangelist, and also a teacher. Varied, therefore, was his range of truth, and distinct, he informs us, were the lines of it. And here in his enumeration of them we can see a beautiful order; a hint, too - may we not say it - to labourers in the Word. For first, in dealing with souls there is the need of conscience work to go forward. Repentance and faith, then, he begins with. The one without the other might drive a soul to despair. God does not desire that; so an object - the Lord Jesus Christ - is presented. With that the Gospel of the grace of God is found in season. Now with Paul that Gospel was a full one, and embraced far more than many called evangelists would suppose. The Gospel in his thoughts took in the range of truth in Rom 1-8, and part of Eph.2 as well. His was a teaching Gospel, as well as just the preaching of forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ. And much of it was suited only for believers, as the Epistle to the Romans clearly indicates. Hence the mention of it comes in well after faith and repentance. Then, side by side with the Gospel, the kingdom was preached. That he next mentions - a subject treated of in the Gospels; nor is it foreign to truth taught in the Epistles. It formed a theme of apostolic preaching (Acts 8:12, 14:22, 19:8, 28:23,31), and is introduced in most of the Pauline Epistles. These great subjects mentioned, there comes, last in order, the whole counsel of God. Teaching this is only suited for Christians. These counsels concern God's purposes about His Son, as well as His purposes towards saints, and that special line of instruction called Church truth. In Epistles, as that to the Ephesians, that to the Colossians, and that to the Hebrews, these counsels are especially unfolded. Very distinct, then, are these different lines, but all needed for the saint to be fully instructed in Christian revelation.

Now notice, in verse 24 he says, he preached the gospel of the grace of God; in verse as, the kingdom of God, and in verse 27 he says: "I have not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God." He says in effect, "You have got all this blessing. The gospel has brought you into this favoured place of nearness and relationship. The divine authority is established in your hearts. You are under the sway of God. You obey His word. But remember all that God has done He has done with certain great counsels or purposes in His mind." He has actually made those purposes known to us. They are not yet brought to fruition. They are not yet carried into effect as they will be in the ages to come, but they are made known to us that we may live our whole earthly lives in the light of what God purposed from before the foundation of the world.

Have you ever asked yourself why the apostle says here, "I have not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God"? We might say, "Why, Paul, using that word 'shun' would make us believe there was a kind of reluctance in your mind to speak about these things." Paul would have said: "Yes, there is. Nothing will bring me into more difficulty than expounding faithfully the whole counsel of God."

He goes on to say, “Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God”. The counsel of God is very fully unfolded in the epistle to the Ephesians. Beyond that which meets our need is that which God has desired according to His own thought. In the course of that epistle the expression, “according to”, occurs again and again. We are shown that God has blessed us, not merely according to our need, but according to His own thoughts, purpose and counsel. These were formed even before the foundation of the world. Paul made that manifest. He says, “I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God”. Why should he have shunned doing so? We might have thought there would be only delight on Paul's part in expounding such wonderful truths. But it was precisely that which brought upon him the wrath of the orthodox Jew. Why were his footsteps dogged in every place? Why was he treated as he was? Because he did not shun to declare all the counsel of God. This lifts the Christian into heavenly blessings beyond anything made known in connection with the Jew and the blessing which the Jew will have in the coming age.

God’s counsel is the plan that will secure His eternal purpose, and He works all things according to this plan. How very encouraging it is to the Christian to know that nothing happens in this world but what subserves the will of God. God is not acting publicly today in the events of the world, as He surely will in a coming day, but His counsel has ordered that everything must work towards the great end of fulfilling His eternal purpose. In that which God does not rule He overrules, even as He makes the wrath of man to praise Him.

Christian’s ought not to be ignorant of what God is doing, for, through His servants, He has fully made known His mind and will, even as Paul said to the elders of Ephesus, “I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). God has been pleased to make known to us His counsel regarding His ancient people Israel, regarding the nations, and regarding the church. We are not in ignorance of what lies ahead, for it has been given to us in the pages of inspiration. The believer can look, as in a mirror, into the world to come, where God’s purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord for His glory will be secured, and into the eternal scene, where God will be all in all; and we can rest in the midst of all the present evil and confusion around as knowing that God is working all things after the counsel of His own will.

That we might have the full knowledge of God’s will, He has given us His word, in which there is presented to us all His thoughts. God does not only wish us to know His will in regard to our individual path, or in regard to our gatherings in the assembly, important as these are: He also desires us to know all His will in regard to Christ, and in relation to Himself. To this end He has told us of “the good pleasure of His will”, “the mystery of His will”, and “the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:5, 9, 11). These things relate to God’s purpose, and tell us of what God has determined to do for His own pleasure, for the glory and honour of His Son, and for the blessing of those He has chosen to share Christ’s place before His face, and in the display of His glory in the coming day.

This truth, that the communications of God are adapted to the position of those who historically received them, brings us into intelligence of all the counsels of God; for He reveals Himself in His authority, His wisdom, and His sovereignty, in these counsels, as He makes Himself known in His nature by the revelation of Himself in Christ. Christ is the centre of these counsels, but every family in heaven and earth is ranged under the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Angels, principalities, powers, Jews, Gentiles, everything that is named, shall be placed under His authority (the church being united to Him in His glory). Now, the counsels of God with respect to us are revealed in His word; and, although God does not speak to us in order to gratify our curiosity, many subjects outside salvation strictly speaking, which are connected with this supremacy of Christ, are connected also with that which God sets before us for our instruction, as the development of this in His dealings here below.

With these things in view — our future assured, and the sins question settled — we may think what more could there be? There is a great deal more. Believers, whom God has so wonderfully blessed, are taken into confidence by the blessed God. They are drawn into His presence to receive the most intimate communication as to what He is doing. What is God's object? He appears to say, "I want to take you into my confidence, I have constituted you my redeemed people, and I have given you a nature, relationship, and acceptance in which you can be in undisturbed possession in quiet and rest; every anxiety removed. Now, with your heart at rest, I want you to understand that My blessing and your blessing is really part of a larger plan," viz., He has made known to us the Mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself. It is hid from other people, but made known to the believer. Let us remember that the will of God is supreme; He counsels, and it must be accomplished. When we read of the will of God in this sense — the will of His counsel — we know that it is going to be accomplished. What is behind it all? "His good pleasure which He has purposed in Himself." What then is that? Is it not that God is working out a wonderful scheme, headed up in Christ, in which He will be able to find eternal pleasure. When it is all brought into being and accomplished, God will be able to rest in His love, in supreme satisfaction, because He has brought about a system for His own pleasure. He purposed it in Himself, He has made it to depend upon His own omnipotence and omniscience: upon His own wisdom and power. He has brought it about, and will bring it about for reasons of His own. Truly we can say:-

Now it is only when the revelation of the individual Christian position according to these wonderful counsels of God is thus complete, and revealed by the Holy Ghost for faith to enter into and enjoy by the power of the same Spirit, that God counts upon our being free, so to speak, to enter into His interests for Christ. His grace is then seen abounding in all wisdom and prudence in bringing out to us these counsels. "Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one [or 'head up,' as it really should read] all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth." This is the Mystery then in its widest range: for what could go beyond not only all things being put into subjection to Him (which had been announced before, and will be fulfilled in the last of earth's times, i.e. the Kingdom), but the whole universe being brought into relationship with Him as its Head; which, when the times have reached their fulness, is now revealed to be the end and object of God in instituting them? What an expanse of glory opens up to our souls as we are enabled to delight in the place which God had purposed in Himself for Christ, and which He in unspeakable grace is now pleased to make known to us.

It is of the utmost importance to see that there is the counsel of God's will for believers, as well as the grace of God that brings salvation for all men. Generally we are better acquainted with His saving grace than with the counsels of His heart. The saving grace of God meets our condition as sinners, and of necessity we must begin with that which meets our need; but the counsels of God reveal what God has purposed to bring to pass for the satisfaction of His own heart. The saving grace of God, and the counsels of God, though distinct blessings, cannot be separated, for the grace that saves our souls leads on to the glory that satisfies God's heart.